This invention relates to ice making and more particularly to vertical tube ice makers and improvements thereon.
Vertical tube apparatus for making ice is well known. An inside cylinder of sheet metal is disposed internally of an outer cylinder of sheet metal forming a hollow-walled tube where the inner surface is defined by the inside cylinder and the outer surface is defined by the outer cylinder. Coolant is circulated within the annular space between the two cylinders. Water is dispersed onto both the inner surface of the inner cylinder and onto the outer surface of the outer cylinder where it is frozen to form sheet ice in cylindrical or tube-shaped form on both outer and inner surfaces. When desired, the coolant is heated to allow slight melting and the cylindrical inner and outer ice sheets slough away from the respective tube surfaces and fall onto a cutter, where the ice is broken, then collected for use. In usual fashion, ice makers are made with a plurality of adjacent parallel vertical tubes of this type to facilitate making volumes of ice required in facilities where such volumes are required.
Current vertical tube ice makers, while producing ice, have several inherent disadvantages which produce significant manufacturing, assembling and operational difficulties. Certain of these result from the need to provide separate systems to deliver water, on one hand, and coolant or warming gases or fluids on the other hand, to confined spaces at the tops of the tubes. For example, in the water delivery system alone, the water dispensing devices typically compromise conduits in annular donut-like shapes surrounding the outer surface of the ice making tube, and other water conduits disposed inside the ice making tube. Water is sprayed onto the inner and outer tube surfaces from outlets or orifices in these respective conduits. These conduits are typically made of copper and use copper fittings. Fitting up these conduits and fittings is labor intensive, they are hard to install, are prone to clogging and scale buildup from water flowing therethrough, and are very hard to replace. Moreover, they must be configured to avoid interference and be oriented around the components of the cooling media delivery systems.
It is thus one objective of the invention to provide an improved apparatus for dispersing water onto the ice forming surfaces of vertical, ice making tubes.
A further objective has been to provide improved water handling apparatus in an ice maker, eliminate clogging and scale buildup and facilitate manufacture, assembly and replacement of water handling apparatus in an ice maker.
Once ice sheets are formed on the tube, the coolant is heated so the tube surfaces warm and ice sheets gravitate or slough off down the tube into a cutter for comminution and collection as smaller ice chunks, particles, blocks or other shapes. In the past, the cutters are driven from one end of the apparatus with open belts and pulleys. The drive end extended through an opening in the side of the machine, usually via an access plate, through which the cutter was inserted lengthwise, i.e. in an axial direction. Removal for replacement, sharpening or the like required substantial service clearance beside the machine, for a distance at least as long as the cutter so it could be withdrawn from the side and replaced. This all made for cumbersome handling, at best, and dangerous or practically impossible servicing at worst.
It has thus been a further objective of this invention to provide an improved cutter drive for an ice maker which eliminates open drive components, eliminates the need for significant machine side service clearance, and provides machine-front service access for cutter removal.
In yet another aspect of ice makers, it has been the practice to form an underlying water tank and an ice chute from sheets of stainless steel, and then insulate with one of many forms of insulation. This increases assembly difficulty and expense. Also, the cracks and corners inherent in many such water tanks can lead to more unsanitary conditions.
It has thus been a further objective of the invention to provide an improved water tank and ice chute, and to improve the insulating qualities and techniques of typically prior machines.
In a further aspect of the invention, it has been known that steel framing is used to build a cabinet frame for an ice maker to hold the water tank, evaporator housing and other features of the machine. Such a frame is then completed with sheet metal or other flat panels and insulated. This construction, too, is labor intensive.
It has thus been a further objective of the invention to provide an improved ice maker, while eliminating the need for separate frame, side panels and insulation.
To these ends, the invention contemplates an improved ice maker having a number of unique features. A single unitary, preferably roto-molded, plastic water manifold is provided for servicing a plurality of vertical ice making tubes.
The manifold is configured to permit connection of the coolant feed and recirculation conduits to the ice-making tubes. At the same time, the manifold is provided with a number of outwardly extending integral projections directed toward the tubes and provided with orifices for disbursing water onto the tube surfaces in appropriate direction and volume for the sheeting action suited to ice formation. Preferably, one integral projection of the manifold extends into the upper end of each tube and is provided with orifices directed for spraying water onto the internal surface of the tube. Other manifold-integral projections extend along the top end of, and outside each tube and have an orifice so that a plurality of these projections are disposed to spray water onto the outer surface of at least one tube. Several intermediate projections disposed in areas between the tubes have multiple orifices to spray water onto the outer surface of two adjacent tubes.
This single manifold has a water inlet fitting which receives a single water supply hose, secured by a hose clamp, for supplying the entire manifold with enough water for each tube in the ice maker. There are no copper water conduits associated with each tube, nor any soldering in assembly, or for repair.
Scale does not tend to build on the plastic surfaces of the manifold and clogging is significantly reduced, if not wholly eliminated. Access to the top of all the tubes for any repair, servicing of the coolant connections or the like is accomplished by removal of a single manifold, as compared to the numerous spaghetti-like structures of the prior, copper conduit served water supply. Manufacturing and assembling costs are substantially reduced and maintenance is facilitated.
The ice maker has a cutter bar which is accessible, serviceable and removable from the front, rather than the side, of the ice maker. That is, the cutter bar is removed forwardly, directly away from the area beneath all tubes at substantially the same time and not pulled from the side where it moves in an axial or endwise direction beneath each tube, one at a time.
A gear motor is disposed within the ice maker. One end of the cutter is a permanent sealed bearing mounted on an internal panel, the other is mounted in the gear motor without a second, extraneous bearing being necessary. A slotted opening allows direct forward withdrawal of the drive from the gear motor end so the entire cutter bar and drive can be serviced or removed directly from the front of the ice maker, yet is enclosed in the cabinet where access during operation is limited.
In another feature of the invention, the water tray and ice chute is formed of roto-molded plastic as one part, which also serves as the base of the ice maker. The water tray/ice chute is constructed as a double walled tank, with the air space created by the double walls eliminating any need for further base insulations. There are no cracks or sharp corners caused by any weld to harbor unsafe organisms, and its plastic nature also resists scale buildup.
In a further feature of the invention, the integral water tank and ice chute described above is configured and used as the base of the ice maker. No frame is used for its housing or cabinet. Instead, structural insulated panels are secured to the base to form the housing. Such panels comprise a foam insulative core bonded to inner and outer steel skins. This construction produces a very strong cabinet, frameless, and eliminates the need for separate frame, panels and insulation.
These and other objectives and advantages will become readily apparent from the following detailed description of a written embodiment of the invention and from the drawings, in which: